The service of foods of various kinds that are supposed to be chilled when consumed presents substantial problems. Even in an ideal environment, such as a private home or a small restaurant, it may be necessary to keep foods of this kind chilled for extended periods after they have been removed from normal refrigeration facilities and set out in display for the people who are to eat them. The larger the restaurant or other food service facility, or the more extended its hours, the greater the problems become. For a catering service that prepares cold food in advance and must deliver that food for consumption at varying distances, the problems are even worse. In all of these different environments, there is a substantial tendency for the originally chilled food to warm up, once it is out into a warm environment, with consequent wilting and loss of the desired taste and texture characteristics for the food.
One conventional technique for serving chilled foods, frequently utilized in restaurants and similar environments, uses a large tube or trough filled with ice cubes or chipped ice; the dishes containing the chilled food that is to be served to the patrons are inserted into the ice and are kept chilled for varying periods of time after they have been brought from the normal refrigeration facilities. A system of this kind frequently requires periodic replenishment of the ice and may require draining of the water from melting of the ice. Serving dishes for domestic use and other applications have been constructed on the same principle, usually with a hollow base for storing a supply of ice cubes or chipped ice.
Another technique used in the service of chilled foods, most frequently in a catering situation, utilizes small plastic bags or other containers of a chilling gel. These gel-filled containers are frozen, in much the same manner as the freezing of ice, and are then packed around the food or liquids to be served cold, in much the same way as ice cubes. This arrangement has the advantage that the water associated with melting ice is eliminated but is frequently at a disadvantage with respect to cost, particularly if recovery of the gel-filled plastic bags or other containers is difficult. Finally, there have been some proposals for specialized dishes for maintaining food, condiments, or the like in chilled condition for extended periods, these containers usually including one or more chambers filled with a chillable gel of the same kind as has been used in the aforementioned gel-filled plastic bags.
The previously known arrangements for service of chilled foods and the like have all presented continuing problems and difficulties pertaining to manufacture and use. The special dishes incorporating chilling gels have not been adapted to general food service and have frequently been unduly expensive for ordinary usage. Many of these dishes tend to produce excessive condensation. In many instances, the service arrangements and apparatus for chilled foods do not maintain the foods at a low enough temperature for a long enough period to meet the requirements of restaurant and catering use, or even to fulfill the requirements of family use where the time of service must be adjusted to meet the needs of different people. Moreover, these previously known service arrangements for chilled foods have tended to be limited to one or two specific uses and have lacked the versatility necessary for use with a broad variety of foods, condiments and the like.